Officers investigate solicitor's death

A solicitor who was critically injured after a four-storey fall died yesterday, a day after being admitted to hospital in a coma.

Ken Y. Lim, 50, a partner in Johnson Stokes and Master, fell from a seventh-floor balcony at View Villa in Tai Ping Shan Road, Sheung Wan, on Friday afternoon when he reportedly tried to retrieve a packet of cigarettes.

The apartment was rented under the name of former actress Yung Ching-ching, 37, who was spotted in the flat with her husband - kung fu movie director Lau Kar-leung - early yesterday morning as 20 officers from the Special Crime Squad began investigating the incident.

Neither Lau nor Yung lived in the flat.

It was not immediately clear why Lim was in the apartment, but Yung has told police that she had become a good friend of his since recently qualifying as a lawyer herself.

She and her husband were among a number of people who have been interviewed and given statements to the police. Neither was available for comment yesterday.

A police spokesman said last night that so far there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Lim's fall, but the investigation was continuing.

He admitted it was not normal practice for the Special Crime Squad to investigate when someone fell from a height.

Yesterday Lim's son flew back from England, where he was studying, to be with his father. Lim's two daughters and other relatives were also at his bedside when he was declared dead at 6.16 pm.

A watchman of View Villa contacted police on Friday afternoon after finding Lim lying unconscious on the third-floor podium. He was admitted to Queen Mary Hospital in critical condition.

Lim qualified as a solicitor in England in 1976, and in Hong Kong the following year. He had also qualified to practise in Singapore and Victoria and New South Wales in Australia.

He joined Johnson Stokes and Master in 1976 and was made a partner of the firm six years later.